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Could you show how would the binding of a chain knit made in a Raschel machine would look like? Below you see on the left (a) showing the two bar tricot, and on the right (b) an example of raschel warp knit

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Is the pattern wheel only for jacquards? On which machines is it used? Pattern wheels can be used in circular knitting machines but also in warp knitting machines. You can use the pattern wheel to indicate for e.g. if sections of needles are going to tuck or if they are going to knit, it isn't just for jacquards.

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How come the cotton machine is so large? The cotton machine is so large to accomodate for the fabric it produces - as I mentioned it is less seen in industry nowadays but the machines do still exist.

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Not a question but a friendly reminder: It is really important that the pictures in the exam are high quality pictures, checking the Jacquard quiz it is often pretty blurry and sometimes then pretty hard to determine if not seen clearly.

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Not a question but a friendly reminder: It is really important that the pictures in the exam are high quality pictures, checking the Jacquard quiz it is often pretty blurry and sometimes then pretty hard to determine if not seen clearly.

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Thank you for this feedback. Yes Peter created the presentation and perhaps when converting to PDF the file as well as image clarity reduced. The exam should be much easier and clearer to see the image.

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I am a little confused about the double needle bar Raschel, how does it work?... 

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I am a little confused about the double needle bar Raschel, how does it work?... 

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For the double needle bar - you have two needle bars - the front needle bar and back needle bar.
a)The front needle bar rises. The front needle bar is raised to clear the previous course of overlaps from the latches whilst the back needle bar holds the fabric loops.
b)The overlap. The guide bar swings through between the needles to the front of the machine. It is shogged for the overlap and then swings back.
c)The knock-over and underlap. As the needle bar descends to knock-over, the guide bar performs the underlap shog.
d)The third swing of the guide bar. The guide bar now swings over the front needle bar in order to allow the back needle bar to rise and begin its knitting cycle.

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Diagram to explain warp knitting question:

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Diagram to explain warp knitting question:

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Notice the back bar with the black/blue yarn threaded, it lays the yarn in rather than knitting with the rest of the pink yarns - blue yarn represents the green yarn in the previous image -->

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Each machine and what technique we use each machine for

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Each machine and what technique we use each machine for

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Some stitches can be done on multiple different types of machines – but in case studies we may discuss a product we wish to make or knit and the product you want to make will determine which machine it is made on.

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The yarn feed -  word feed means to provide - ‘All connected systems are fed (provided) with the same amount of yarn. ‘

The feeding system is what a manual knitting machine usually has, (lever, turning knob, plate break).

Yarn carriers come with build-in yarn feeders, which will literally put the yarn in contact with the needles to produce stitches.

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For the RR (dial+cylinder) circular knitting machine we use long and short needles to be able to move in their own track. (interlock example – see page p43 in reader)

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For the Flatbed knitting machine we use needles with high and low needle butts to make a selection (influenced by cam settings on the carriage). Useful when knitting plisse or ribs.

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warp knitting question: How can this inlay yarn structure only be made with 4 needles?

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warp knitting question: How can this inlay yarn structure only be made with 4 needles?

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The structure of the blue chain stitches is made with a fully threaded guide bar.  The green yarn is not knitted but laid-in (notice no stitch formation in green). Laying‐in is usually produced by the back bar in two guide bar fabrics. At least one fully threaded guide bar is positioned at the front of the laying‐in bars to produce the ground structure of the fabric.

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(Image shows two systems with 4 needle lanes of a giant circular knitting machine, which is equipped with an asymmetrical cam.)

On the Cylinder (RL) : you need the different height needle butts as there is a 4 track system – you need 4 different heights for needles so they have their own track.

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Needle variations - Which types are used when?

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Needle variations - Which types are used when?

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- high/low needle butts
- different height needle butts
- short/long needle butts

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Knitting systems / track systems explained

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Knitting systems / track systems explained

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Knitting systems = track systems

Each ‘system’ or ‘track’ controls everytime whether the needle goes up to knit, tuck or miss.

- Flat bed = 3 knitting systems / 3 track system – 3 points where the needle comes up to knit

- Circular – 4 track system (multitrack) - e.g. for RL circular knitting machines, 4 needle lanes = 4 needle selection (narrow enough to go under 1 thread guide)

- Circular – RL - Sock machine – 2 track system (goes up the path to reach yarn and down again – up the mountain) + pendel

- Circular – RR - Dial + cylinder 2 tracks each

- Circular knitting machine (cont.) - The amount of knitting systems on a circular knitting machine can vary from 1 up to approx. 160 systems. 160 systems = 160 points where the needle goes up to knit. Every cam (system) of a circular knitting machine knits its own stitch course, which means that for a basic knitting, after one row of knitting there are as many rows as there are systems.

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- The needlebeds are circular, The resulting fabric is mostly tubular, can knit seamless tubes – knitting in the round, but also produce fabrics for cut and sew process

- latch needles used, cams, jacks, sinkers, needle detectors, takedown roller, fabric widener, upper and/or side creel

- The cylinder moves, not the cam boxes

- It has more knitting systems (6 to 360)

- regular and uninterrupted use of machines = fast paced production in bulk

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You will need to be able to recognise fabrics and explain what they are, how they are constructed. In the example of pile fabrics such as Nikki velour – RL with sinker loops – you don’t need to be able to differentiate if it is a nikki velour or a velveteen (hint: it is about the cut pile length) but you do need to recognise it is a pile fabric – many of these techniques have different structures and construction in pictures.

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A cable is based on the transferring of stitches in a particular section of the knit – stitches 1-2-3 are transferred to needles 4-5-6, and stitches 4-5-6 are transferred to needles 1-2-3 to create the cable curve

Petinet stitch means to transfer stitches and create with small openings holes in the knit. It can be divided over the knitting

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Stitch formation process tricot machine: 

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Stitch formation process tricot machine: 

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a)The rest position. The needles have risen to 2/3 of their full height from knock-over and have their beards towards the back of the machine. The presser is withdrawing and the guides are at the front of the machine with the sinkers forward, holding the old overlaps in their throats so that they are maintained at the correct height on the needle stems.

b)Backward swing and overlap shog (c). After swinging through the needles to the beard side (inside machine), the needles are overlapped across the beard usually by one needle space in opposite directions.

c)The return swing and second rise (c,d). As the guides swing to the front , the needles rise to their full height so that the newly-formed overlaps slip off the beards into the stems above the old overlaps. This arrangement reduces the amount of guide-bar swing necessary and therefor the time required.

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Stitch formation process tricot machine (cont.):

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Stitch formation process tricot machine (cont.):

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e) Pressing. The needle bar descends so that the open beards cover the new overlaps . There is a slight pause whilst the presser advances and closes the beards.

f) Landing. As the sinkers withdraw, the upward curve of their bellies lands the old overlaps onto the closed beards.

g) Knock-over and underlap shog (g). The presser is withdrawn and the continued descent of the needle bar causes the old overlaps to be knocked-over as the heads of the needles descend below the upper surface of the sinker bellies. The underlap shog which can occur at any time between pressing and knock-over usually occurs in opposite directions on the two guide bars.

The sinker will then move forward to hold down the fabric loops and push them away from the ascending needles, which are rising to the rest position.

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TM WEFT – a Weft Insertion Machine by KARL MAYER

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WEFTTRONIC® II G – A weft insertion machine by KARL MAYER

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- Reader - learn from chapter 6 until the end of the reader
- NCSU readers
1) warp knitting and 2)weft knitting
- The online lectures 1-8 + your notes - you can find the recordings back on Blackboard Collaborate.

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a) Holding down. The guide bars are at the front of the machine, completing their underlap shog. The sinker bar moves forward to hold the fabric down whilst the needles bar starts to rise from knock-over.

b) Clearing. As the needle bar raises to its full height, the old overlaps slip down onto the stems after opening the latches, which are prevented from flicking closed by latch wires. The sinker bar then starts to withdraw to allow the guide bars to overlap.

c) Overlap. The guide bars swing to the back of the machine and then shog for the overlap.

d) Return swing. As the guide bars swing  to the front, the warp threads wrap into the needle hooks.

e) Latch closing The needle bar descends so that the old overlaps contact and close the latches trapping the new overlaps inside. The sinker bar now starts to move forward.

f) Knocking-over and underlap. As the needle bar continues to descend, its head passes below the surface of the trick-plate, drawing the new overlap through the old overlap which is cast-off and as the sinkers advance over the trick-plate, the underlap shog of the guide bar is commenced.

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How does the report correspond with the yarn fingers? (santoni)

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How does the report correspond with the yarn fingers? (santoni)

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The report says nothing about the colour, only the binding. It is two different things.  The binding stands on its own, colour determining which stitch to make - knit, miss, float, tuck. There are 100 different bindings possible. Here are some more complex examples:
e.g. Report - 1 - fantasy knit.

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(santoni)

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(santoni)

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Example of a garment knitted wholegarment - see the waste rows knitted at the beginning of the sample.

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Example of an interlock fabric 2 x RR (from basic bindings in lesson 2).

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Knitwear Lab - from design to programming to product - Insta-story

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Knitwear Lab - from design to programming to product - Insta-story

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https://www.instagram.com/tv/CID2HC4F1gw/

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Knitwear Lab - types of stitches on the Stoll knitting machine - Insta-story

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Knitwear Lab - types of stitches on the Stoll knitting machine - Insta-story

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https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHx0EXYFEBo/

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Knitwear Lab - Introduction to electronic knitting machine (STOLL) - Insta-story

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Knitwear Lab - Introduction to electronic knitting machine (STOLL) - Insta-story

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https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHfxjw_lacb/

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See the 3 knit systems at work

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Knitwear Lab - machine close up (3 knitting systems)

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Knitwear Lab - machine close up (3 knitting systems)

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https://www.instagram.com/p/B-wGbZhlVj9/

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Knitwear Lab - machine close up (2) (needle beds)

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Knitwear Lab - machine close up (2) (needle beds)

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https://www.instagram.com/p/B-u0almFUUq/

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Knitwear Lab - machine close up (3) (yarn feeders)

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Knitwear Lab - machine close up (3) (yarn feeders)

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https://www.instagram.com/p/B-un33ulsR_/

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Knitting systems, knitwear manufacture, and sustainability (eliminate waste, improve recyclability)

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Knitting systems, knitwear manufacture, and sustainability (eliminate waste, improve recyclability)

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https://medium.com/supplyframe-hardware/on-the-cutting-edge-of-technical-knit-manufacturing-72a17e68c7fc

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Connie and Bruce Huffa are Fabdesigns Inc., the engineering firm behind pioneer products such as the Nike Flyknit and Warp Lacrosse Racket.

Connie speaks about how knit-tech engineers can eliminate waste, improve recyclability, and bring industry back to sustainability, while also making better products with higher profit margins.

Bruce Huffa stands in front of their Stoll ADF knitting machines at the office of their textile engineering studio, Fabdesigns. ADF stands for Autarkic Direct Feed, meaning that the yarn feeders are individually controlled.

A Mixture of Older and Newer Technologies

In 2013, Americans produced over 15 million tons of textile waste, and 85% of it went to the landfill. "I bought a 200 year old house, and all the closets in it are really tiny! Back then people had maybe two outfits for work, and one outfit for dressing up - they just didn't have as much stuff." As a veteran of the manufacturing industry, Connie is keenly aware of how mass production technologies have enabled mass environmental pollution.

"I got started in this industry when I was 19. My husband started when he was 16. We grew up in the factories." When Connie started her career, mechanical knitting machines were going out and computers were coming in. She first started on a Shima Seiki machine. "The guys let me do it because they thought that the computerized machines were just a fad."

Connie keeps an old Apple 2 computer in her office, "because there are some factories in India that are still using this really old technology, second hand." She shows me an old metal punch cylinder, reminiscent of how the old IBM mainframes were coded. "We used to have to punch tapes, because the machines had no RAM back then."

She and her husband are at the cutting edge of their field, partially because they still code in machine code, and can find ways to manufacture more efficiently and effectively than everyone else using the graphical user interface. Bruce's teacher was Thomas Stoll himself, and Bruce was the instructor for Stoll's North American office back in the 80's.

Connie knows all the machine language color codes by heart and rattles them off to me. I ask her if it's possible to break the machine because you don't have the safety mechanisms that using the software's visual interface gives you, and she tells me about a time when she forgot to change the tension and broke 200 needles ($4 each) at once. "You have to wear glasses," she taps hers and grins. Even with today's What You See Is What You Get software from the machine builders, it's still possible to make a tension mistake, although the software flags most other issues before they happen.

The Innovative Solutions From Fabdesigns

Connie and her husband Bruce are Fabdesigns: an engineering firm that takes product ideas and builds complete manufacturing platforms, including training the factories on best practices in lean manufacturing processes. She explains to me that "each yarn feeder is allocated to a system, and on the ADF [Autarkic Direct Feed] we may have multiple feeders in each system".

You can knit a 3-color jacquard with multiple colors, choosing which colors you want to see on the surface and which to place on the inside of the fabric. For more than a 3-color jacquard fabric, the machine makes multiple passes to create each layer in a row of fabric.

If a machine has two needle beds, you can knit tubes based in jersey fabric only, but if your machine has four needle beds, like the 530 MTB machine in Fabdesigns studio, you can do double bed transfers. This means that you can move and manipulate the knitted pieces in the machine. Both Shima Seiki and Stoll machines utilize 4 needle bed techniques to create garments in one piece without any cutting or sewing.

Three dimensional knitting technology has been around for a long time - since the debut of the Stoll 400 and 402 machines at the 1987 ITMA in Paris. Connie and Bruce have the old brochures on the wall in the studio. Bruce moved from Smitex, the Stoll agent in the UK, to Stoll America in 1985. In 1987 they both helped Stoll pioneer flat knitting on the West Coast through technical sales, programming service, machine installations, and machine services for Stoll.

Bruce and Connie Huffa in front of their 33TC machine

When they got engaged, they were forced to go on their own by Stoll, and subsequently started their own company. Fabdesigns has been in business since 1988, and has always been focused on the most technically difficult projects, knitting to shape, and supporting manufacturing facilities in the US, Mexico, Canada, South America, Asia, and around the world.

The systems they've built focus on making products that sell as efficiently as possible. They enable savvy designers from big brands and start-ups to customize fibers and structure placement for function and aesthetics.

Connie tells me about how she's been recently excited about thermochemistry and other unseen inks that change color based on the environment, because that opens a whole new host of possibilities for knitted technology.

Her machine knitted samples include everything from pieces that have glue yarns in them (This yarn was developed in the 50s), fabric knitted with integrated pockets, padding full of little clear curls of knitted nylon that act like springs, and structural knitted pieces like cables and braids.

In a previous article, I wrote about just in time, custom-made manufacturing, and it turns out that from 2001 to 2010 Connie and Bruce were working with Brenda French of French Rags to manufacture made to order. "It's all been done before." They are currently working with Variant to streamline on-demand manufacturing, where brands or individuals can use an online platform to upload their own artwork onto garments and products, which are then fed directly to a knitting machine for production.

Bruce wrote software that basically takes over from where the online customizing platform leaves off and uses machine language to queue up each order sequentially, one right after the other for Variant.

The Limitations of Knitted Products

I ask Connie about the design limitations associated with knitted products. "Flat knitting is slower than circular or warp knitting, but far easier to set up. In flat knitting one can add or drop needles, creating real shaping and dimension. Only in flat knitting can true seamless products be made with no cutting, no sewing, and nearly zero waste.

One of the issues with knitting in general is that in jacquard fabrics with strong colors, say black and white, there can be grin through. This is where you can see the other colors of a knit jacquard peeking through the surface color via holes in the fabric.

Some designers don't like this because their ribs are a solid single color and vivid. The introduction of other colors creates a muddier look. The only way around this is intarsia. Intarsia can be employed to prevent grin through, where one yarn feed stops and another picks up where it left off, but this technique leaves ends in the middle of the fabric. It also costs about 25 cents to process each end."

Another limitation is the number of colors. Connie says that for colors, there are a maximum of 32 feeders, so you can't have more than 30 yarns because of the need for a draw thread and a special elasticated thread for the takedown comb on the machine.

Eliminating Waste Wherever Possible

Fabdesigns works on technical knits, which is a lot different than working with the fast-paced seasons of the garment industry. "It can take three years or more to develop a medical device, 10 years for a plane, and about 1.5 for the interior of a car - if the design doesn't change. Then, the products are manufactured for 4-5 years in the case of automotive, or even 15-20 for a medical device." At this scale, the effect of engineering efficiency is exponential. It's imperative to keep as much out of the landfill as possible to decrease the carbon footprint.

In cut and sew manufacturing it's not uncommon for 20-30% of the fabric to be wasted. With wholly knitted manufacturing, which is what Connie specializes in, there's nearly zero waste - only the waste yarn at the beginning of the piece.

Stoll M1+ CAD system

"We need to think ahead. What's the exit strategy?" As Connie works on developing fabric with metal in it, she's also thinking about how that fabric is going to be ground up to extract the metal for recycling after it's been worn out.

Exploring Potential Recycling Solutions

She mentions a few companies that are all in the textiles and recycling space: Bionic, Tepar, Repreve (fabric from plastic bottles), and Recover. "I really like what Recover is doing. They're taking clothing that is past production, sorting them so that all the same fabrics and all the same colors are together, and recycling them that way." In these systems, the black, red, and green jacquard sample that Connie has would go in the black pile to be recycled.

"For some technical knits the specifications would be too exact for recycled fiber to be used, but for most applications in the garment industry, recycled fiber should be fine. The difficulty is that often with recycled material there is no color guarantee. Consumers have to realize the limitations, and designers need to realize how much we can use recycled products and close the loop. It might be a little higher in price, but what is the price of not recycling? People are going to have to vote with their wallets."

A room in the Fabdesigns office with samples on the right and oaktag patterns in the back.

Connie reminisces about the first light up shoes made by Sketchers that she bought for her kids. They had mercury switches in them. The company was responsible and provided a mail in envelope with every pair, so that consumers could send in their used shoes. Mercury is regulated by the EPA as a hazard in landfills, but with the globalization of commerce now, the logistics of individually sending used products to one place don't make sense economically. Perhaps large companies can make a difference - Connie mentions how Walmart started in 2009 to require its vendors to state how much recycled content is in their products. For instance: how many bottles were actually put into a specific product.

"My grandmother used as much plastic in a month as we do in a day," Connie says. "We took soda bottles back to the store. It's only since the 90's that companies have shifted the recycling problem to consumers. Interesting isn't it? This is the same time they shifted production off-shore."

From recycling plastic into textiles to developing new color matching technologies for recycling fabric, it's up to today's engineers to reverse our environmental debt for tomorrow's planet.
Thanks to Connie Huffa for inviting me to her office to interview her, and going over this article with a careful eye to fact check and add important details. If you are interested in partnering with Fabdesigns for a product or interning with them to get into the knit technology industry, you can contact Connie and Bruce at http://www.fabdesigns.com/.

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On the Cutting Edge of Technical Knit Manufacturing

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Connie and Bruce Huffa are Fabdesigns Inc., the engineering firm behind pioneer products such as the Nike Flyknit and Warp Lacrosse Racket. Connie speaks about how knit-tech engineers can eliminate waste, improve recyclability, and bring industry back to sustainability, while also making better products with higher profit margins.

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Knitwear Lab - better view of the 3 knitting systems in action

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Knitwear Lab - better view of the 3 knitting systems in action

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BFROkRdBiL7/

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Knitwear Lab - knitting intarsia (3 knitting systems)

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Knitwear Lab - knitting intarsia (3 knitting systems)

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You can see the three knitting systems moving 3 yarn carriers, once a fourth carrier is introduced it must move seperarely for the 4th yarn to be knitted in
https://www.instagram.com/p/BJd2I_RAMk8/

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Knitwear Lab - close up of the friction feed wheel (fournisseur)

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Knitwear Lab - close up of the friction feed wheel (fournisseur)

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BSWlDVSh3MC/

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Rethinking mass production =
Design – sell – make

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Mass customisation "can be the future of fashion," says Knyttan co-founder

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Knitwear Lab - Knitted Shoe upper developments

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Knitwear Lab - Knitted Shoe upper developments

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BTq0y6bhBw7/

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Knitwear Lab - Thread guides - video example of removing knitted setup of elastic/nylon yarns

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Knitwear Lab - Thread guides - video example of removing knitted setup of elastic/nylon yarns

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https://www.instagram.com/p/BhOtqO5lCbh/